my

hand which

what a book contains, I take one in I feel is doing me harm, by raising bad thoughts, may I instantly close it; and if it has come into my possession, destroy it. Bad books "diffuse poison and death."

MAXIMS AND ANECDOTES.

Faults. We should never be ashamed to own that we have been in the wrong. This is only saying that we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday.

Gratitude.-A poor old man was busily employed in planting and grafting an apple-tree, when he was interrupted by a person who said, "Why do you plant trees, when you cannot hope to eat the fruit of them?" The old man raised himself up, and leaning upon his spade, replied, "Some one planted trees before I was born, and I have eaten the fruit; I now plant for others, that the memorial of my gratitude may exist when I am dead and gone."

If it be possible, do some good every day.

He who was never wise enough to find out his own faults, will not be charitable enough to excuse his neighbour's.

"When I was young," says Mr. Southey, "there was a black boy in the neighbourhood, whose name

was Jem Dick. I, and a number of my playfellows, were one evening collected together at our sports, and began to torment the poor lad, by calling him blackamoor, and other degrading epithets; he appeared much grieved at our conduct, and soon left us. We shortly after made an appointment to go skating in the neighbourhood; but on the day we fixed upon I had the misfortune to break my skates, and I could not go without borrowing Jem's. I went to him, and asked him for them. "Oh, yes, John, you may have them, and welcome," was his answer. When I went to return them, I found him sitting by the fire in the kitchen, reading the Bible. I told him I had returned his skates, and was obliged to him for his kindness. He looked at me as he took them, and, with tears in his eyes, said to me, 'John, don't ever call me blackamoor again,' and immediately left the room. The words pierced my heart. I burst into tears, and resolved, from that time, never again to abuse a poor black.”

By entertaining good thoughts, you will keep out evil ones.

Command your temper, lest it should command

you.

A gentle disposition is like an unruffled stream.

Many years ago, when so many French emigrants landed upon our shores, the author became acquainted with one who related the following circumstance as having happened to himself:-Overcome with fatigue,

and "foot-sore with travel," he laid himself down on the roadside, and fell asleep. He had no money in his pocket when he laid down, but when he awoke he found in it 15 shillings! Some "good Samaritan" passing by, and, doubtless, perceiving that he was a foreigner, who might not like to reveal his distress, (for he was a gentleman, and afterwards maintained himself respectably by teaching the French language,) had dropt them in without rousing him from his slumbers." Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days it shall return unto thee”—if not in this world, it will in that which is to come.

"A sense of duty pursues us always. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty done, or duty undone, is still with us for our happiness, or for our misery. We cannot escape from a sense of duty. It goes with us through life, it is with us at its close. We shall then be pained, or consoled, according as we have done our duty, or left it undone."

He who does not make his family comfortable, will himself never be happy at home; and he who is not happy at home, will never be happy anywhere.

Anecdote of a Cat.-A correspondent of the Penny Magazine, No. 442, writes as follows, and gives his name:- "I find a short article on the 'Intelligence of Animals,' in which mention is made of a cat that had learned to open a door by lifting the latch. I

beg to state that I have now in my possession a cat which performs, untaught, the same feat every day, in order to gain admission into the kitchen. This cat has been also in the habit of accompanying me from the dwelling house to the office up-stairs, the door of which has a knocker similar to that of a street-door; on my return to the dwelling house, being occasionally without my key, I knock for admission, and the door is of course opened. This has been observed by the cat; the opening of the door has in its mind been associated with the knock previously given, and when he now wants admission he jumps without hesitation, lifts the knocker, lets it fall, and awaits the result. If not speedily attended to, he knocks again, and, in fact, makes more use of that knocker than any person in the house.”

Some of the writer's family know a lady, whose cat was observed one day to leave its dinner half eaten. In about ten minutes it returned, bringing with it a poor half-starved cat, which presently demolished what had evidently been left for it. The lady and her cook took care that puss should lose nothing by her benevolence, as a double portion was allotted to it as long as her friend partook of her hospitality, which it did for about three weeks, at the end of which time the family saw no more of it.

Domestication of the Owl.-We do not see why the owl, if domesticated, might not be a valuable assistant to the husbandman. If there were one or

two belonging to the rick-yard and barn, they would well repay a little trouble, and would be at work while others sleep. The habit of taming birds, or other animals, is of no little use in forming kind and patient dispositions in the young; and those who have seen the storks in Holland, building on the cottage roofs, and stalking about the road-side and dykes, will not think this a hopeless attempt. It is by continual persecution that the lower animals are driven from us. Their dread might soon be overcome by kind treatment.-Slaney's British Birds.

Nature's Workmen.-There are three creatures, the squirrel, the field-mouse, and the bird called the nut-hatch, which live much on hazel-nuts, and yet they open them each in a different way. The first, after rasping off the small end, splits the

shell into two parts with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife; the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, as regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so small, that one wonders how the kernel can be extracted through it; while the last picks an irregular, ragged hole, with its bill; but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, like a clever workman he fixes it, as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice, when, standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell.White's Natural History of Selbourne.

Let all your things have their places, and let every thing be in its place.